Charley Hull admits tough Olympic Golf start down to falling out shower (and not smoking ban!)
England's Charley Hull reveals she fell out of the shower and injured her shoulder on the eve of the Olympic Golf Tournament in Paris.
Charley Hull admits her shoulder injury from having fallen out of the shower last month is a big reason to blame - and not the smoking ban at Le Golf National - for her tough start to the Women's Olympic Golf Competition.
Team GB's Hull, 28, revealed on the eve of the tournament that an Olympic smoking ban would more than likely cost her a chance of finding herself on the podium on Saturday afternoon.
Hull has cited that smoking cigarettes on the golf course helps her to relax in between shots.
But her indifferent opening 9-over 81 at the Olympics had nothing to do with not being able to rip darts out there on Wednesday.
Hull confirmed after the first round that it was her lack of tournament reps following her shoulder injury sustained last month when falling out of the shower that was the main culprit for her slow start in Paris.
The World No.11 was forced to withdraw from last month's Aramco Team Series PIF - London and she then had to take it easy with her preparations ahead of the Olympics.
Scroll below for Hull's exchange with a pool of reporters after the first round...
Q. Your shoulder?
CHARLEY HULL: It's been a lot better. It's been a lot better to be fair. Yeah, looking forward to tomorrow.
Q. What did you do to it exactly?
CHARLEY HULL: I fell over when I was on the way back from America, the team, and I then had to, pull out of the Aramco and had a week and a half of golf because I thought I tored [sic] something in there. So I had an MRI and then -- my hip, was out, shouldn't have played Evian. So I took like a week and a half off.
Q. Fell over?
CHARLEY HULL: Fell over coming out of the shower before I was getting my flight, I thought I tore my thing -- nothing come up. I just have a bit of arthritis now in my shoulder.
Q. Is it affecting your play?
CHARLEY HULL: No. It's just like I feel a bit rusty because obviously it's been five weeks since I last played properly a four-day event.
Q. The smoking -- it's banned, are you sure about that? Was that in the thinking?
CHARLEY HULL: That's definitely not -- just because I've been injured. I don't think a lot of people realise that I did pull out of the Aramco team series and I did take like ten days off golf and had an MRI and everything. I think that is 100 % why, not the smoking.
Q. A season playing solid golf, how frustrating is it?
CHARLEY HULL: I was just saying to my agent, I'm so frustrated. I wish I didn't have a shower before my flight now.
But I feel like -- I just I feel like one round under my belt and then -- because I did actually have it going at Evian, after my first round, I was still a bit injured there, I was sore, but feel like get one round under my belt, and tomorrow, go low.
Now I feel like it's not my first round back if that makes any sense. And I do struggle on golf courses with trees on them and there's water.
So I had to pick an exact point but now I feel like I do know it a bit more better and a bit more confident, I will try to go low tomorrow.
Q. Did you play much at home the last few weeks?
CHARLEY HULL: I played 10 rounds of golf in six days. And I practise every day from six in the morning till six in the evening, so I played a lot of golf.
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